Somewhere in Washington, Senator Norm Coleman has the satisfaction of the last laugh. After the Left proclaimed George Galloway the winner in his appearance before Coleman's investigative committee on the UN Oil-for-Food scandal -- mostly because Galloway was rude and arrogant, two popular qualities among the MoveOn crowd -- Coleman patiently got Galloway to lie on record and under oath, ensuring that a case could be built against him for fraud and conspiracy. The Guardian (UK) reports today that the other shoe will drop in the next few days on the other side of the pond:

George Galloway faces the prospect of a criminal investigation into his activities by the serious fraud office, which has collected evidence relating to the oil-for-food corruption scandal in Iraq.

A four-strong SFO team returned from Washington with what a source close to US investigators calls "thousands of documents" about the scandal. The team is expected to produce, within the next four weeks, a report for the SFO director, Robert Wardle, as to whether a full criminal investigation should be mounted into UK individuals and companies involved, including Mr Galloway, the Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow.

The SFO is following up two official reports published before Christmas in Washington, which detailed banking evidence that Mr Galloway's wife and his political campaign organisation both received large sums from Saddam Hussein, laundered through under-the-counter oil allocations.

Mr Galloway is unaware of the SFO's activities. He is in the Channel 4 TV show Celebrity Big Brother and cut off from outside contact. He is expected to be evicted from the Big Brother house tonight.

Galloway way pull off quite a feat; he might go from the Big Brother house to the big house in a short period of time.

The Guardian also reports that the Telegraph may use the information to appeal its latest loss on Galloway's libel case against them to the Lords, and that the Washington investigation may soon force Parliament to reopen its review of Galloway's ethics as a member of the Commons.

Galloway may believe that he won some sort of battle against his critics and the Bush administration by appearing before Congress and bluffing his way through questioning by responding with lies and accusations, but in the end all he proved was that politicians who break the law act exactly like ... anyone else who breaks the law. Some people were just dumb enough to fall for his act.

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